COMPETING Podcast Category

Competing Money, where you make itThe operational side of income and loss is the subject of this podcast, not the accounting side. Manufacturers make or lose money on the shop floor.  The shop floor is where you can see problems (not having what we need when we need it, the wrong thing, quality, people, information… Read more »

I recently heard that billionaire Mark Cuban’s answer to the savings problem created by low interest rates is to buy huge quantities of “staples” such as razor blades, soap and toilet paper.  His concept is based on quantity discounts and inflation edging out interest earned on cash. In case you don’t know, Mark Cuban is… Read more »

Empowerment and Accountability:  Opposites or equals?  Certainly when not handled appropriately, these important “people-related” concepts can make the “soft side” of continuous improvement into the “hard-side”.    In this podcast we will explore both Empowerment and Accountability from the Lean perspective.   Empowerment Why empower? Because management cannot see everything; they need help and lots of… Read more »

Competing Part 2 Trust A favorable environment for continuous improvement is a trusting environment an environment where people feel they can take a chance and occasionally make mistakes. an environment where when a mistake is made the results are not public embarrassment or humiliation.  With the equal partners of empowerment and accountability in the background,… Read more »

Creating a Favorable Environment for Continuous Improvement Part 1. Respect: it’s costs and it’s value “I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” – Maya Angelou We need an environment where everyone is allowed and invited to be… Read more »

A few years back I was working with a client to improve information flow in an office.  The problem was too much waiting, as flow stopped due to batch processing and ever-changing bottlenecks due to variation in the cycle times of work required….sometimes sales order processing was the bottleneck and sometimes procurement, or the credit… Read more »

Competing – Temporary employees Does your business sometimes use temporary help to “solve their short and mid-term capacity problem”.  Many of my clients do and often, temporary helpers are just thrown at the problem with little training or attention and are shown little, if any respect by management.  I see three temps hired to solve… Read more »

The definition of a problem is “any question or matter involving doubt, uncertainty, or difficulty”. I find it interesting when I ask people about their business, I am often told that the they have fixed their problems.  Does that mean they no longer have doubt or uncertainty about outcomes and have no difficulties with safety,… Read more »

I know some, well-intentioned managers who are good people but have subconsciously developed the skill of demoralization.  Their mere presence can take the air out of an enthusiastic group ready to act on a problem or implement a solution. Why? I suspect there are many psychological causes that help create skilled demoralizer, but I practice… Read more »

Being out of sync Everywhere I go I notice that much of life’s frustration is related to people or systems being out of sync. We all have experienced what happens when some one does not have what they need when they need it. We have to wait (for the doctor, for the retail person, for… Read more »